Since our strawberry farming
story went up on YouTube early this year (2020), we have received numerous
requests to share a simple plan for setting up a small but commercial
strawberry farm. So today we are happy to share with you this simple, realistic
and executable plan that you can implement immediately.
We have done our best to keep
the figures as conservative as they can get. However, keep in mind that costs
and prices might change over time and in different locations. These figures
were developed for strawberry farming in Kenya in 2020.
For this plan, we shall considering
an available space of ¼ of an acre. For such space we suggest that we use
multi-storey garden technology as shown below. This will help us to maximize on
this space since it is an intensive farming system.
 |
| Strawberry Multilevel gardens |
Farm Set-up
The farm can fit at least 150 of the proposed gardens
each occupying a 2x2 meter space and allowing for walk paths in between them.
These gardens are 6-tier and will each accommodate at
least 120 plants. Therefore, with this setup, we shall have a total of 18,000
plants.
The plants will be watered through a special drip
irrigation system with a maximum of 2 control points for ease of operation. An
automatic timer will also be installed if you are willing.
These garden structures will be filled with the
locally available soil at the centre of each tier and a mixture of red soil and
animal manure in the crop rooting area.
This farm model has the following advantages:
- We will be able to fit a much higher number of plants in the space than we would have ordinarily done if we planted on the ground – only 4,000 plants would have fit on a quarter an acre.
- A small amount of red soil and manure will be used since these will only be placed on the rooting sections of the plants.
- The need for weeding and mulching will be brought to the minimum.
- The set up allows for high water efficiency and low off-surface evaporation thus bringing the cost of water to the bare minimum.
- The fruits will be hanging on the sides of the garden tiers thus helping us to achieve very clean fruits.
Projected costs
The cost of setting up the farm is projected to be as
follows:
|
Item |
Cost |
|
20 tons manure |
40,000 |
|
1 tipper red soil |
20,000 |
|
Multi-storey gardens set-up (150 gardens) |
300,000 |
|
Irrigation system set up |
162,000 |
|
18.000 Strawberry seedlings (Chandler variety) |
270,000 |
|
Consultancy fees |
20,000 |
|
Total |
812,000 |
The cost of running the farm is as follows:
|
Item |
Cost |
|
Monthly Irrigation cost |
7,200 |
|
Crop protection and feeding per month |
4,000 |
|
Labour Monthly |
10,000 |
|
Total |
21,200 |
Projected returns
The project shall have a minimum of 18,000 plants.
Each plant bears a minimum of 1 kg of fruits per year. Therefore the farm is
projected to yield 18,000 kg of fruits per year. These are 72,000 punnets of 250
grams each. Selling each punnet at Ksh 50, the farm will have a turnover of
Ksh3,600,000 per year.
|
Number of plants |
18,000 |
|
Annual Yield per plant (kg) |
1 |
|
Total yield (kg) |
18,000 |
|
Total farm yield (punnets) |
72,000 |
|
Price per punnet (Ksh) |
50 |
|
Annual turnover (Ksh) |
3,600,000 |
Given the projected costs and income, the farm should
break even within the first year of operation.
How to start
Now that you have the facts and the figures, we would love to help you start your strawberry farm immediately. You can call us on 0724698357.
